Steve Torrence Topeka Friday summary

Steve Torrence Working to Keep Points Lead at Summer Nationals

Steve Torrence had a veritable flood of  memories when qualifying began
Friday for Sunday's NHRA O'Reilly Summer  Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Much has happened since  Torrence, an unknown Super Comp racer, replaced the
late Shelly Howard in the  driver's seat of Tom Conway's SKULL GEAR/Torco
Racing Fuels A/Fuel Dragster a  little more than a year ago -- like winning the
Lucas Oil championship, four  national event victories in five finals, and five
division victories in 2005  alone.

"We've had great success so far," said Torrence in an understatement. "It was awesome to go out and do as well as we did, and winning the championship put a cap on everything."

That success kept going when 2005 stopped. He's won twice in four 2006 national title rounds, finished second at the Division 4 race Sunday at Shreveport, La., and regained the points lead in both national and divisional series. His goal this weekend is to keep that advantage.

Torrence, of Kilgore, Texas,  didn't take long to show his mettle, winning
his first divisional race one week  before taking the top prize in the Summer
Nationals at Heartland  Park.

"It was a storybook way to start the season and it stayed  that way all year,"
 Torrence recalled, "but what happened was always in the back  of our you
mind. I didn't know Shelly, but I know she was a really good  person.

"Tom does a great job tuning the car and the crew  guys have worked hard.  We
have the same crew and we just picked up where  we left off last year."

The only difference is Steve Torrence is now well known.

Torrence was fifth in the 16-car field after  Friday's first two qualifying
sessions, with the final two slated  Saturday.

-sgr